Tag Archives: healing

When winter is over.

poetry, winter, , ,

Last week it seemed that winter had just begun, but this evening a balmy wind blew in from I can’t imagine where, and made me think ahead to when actual winter will be over and gone. I offer this poem that makes reference to that point in the future, metaphorically:

A SHORT TESTAMENT

Whatever harm I may have done
In all my life in all your wide creation
If I cannot repair it
I beg you to repair it,

And then there are all the wounded
The poor the deaf the lonely and the old
Whom I have roughly dismissed
As if I were not one of them.
Where I have wronged them by it
And cannot make amends
I ask you
To comfort them to overflowing,

And where there are lives I may have withered around me,
Or lives of strangers far or near
That I’ve destroyed in blind complicity,
And if I cannot find them
Or have no way to serve them,

Remember them. I beg you to remember them

When winter is over
And all your unimaginable promises
Burst into song on death’s bare branches.

–Anne Porter

To make broken things beautiful.

art, beauty, love, quotes, , , , , , , , , ,

From Mother Melania:

Japanese kintsugi mending tools“Have you ever heard of kintsugi? Literally ‘golden joinery,’ kintsugi is ‘the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by mending the areas of breakage with urushi lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum … As a philosophy, it treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise’ (Thanks, Wikipedia!). I won’t presume to discuss the Japanese philosophies related to this art. But there are certainly deeply Christian parallels to be drawn. Three come immediately to mind.

“First are those who valiantly and humbly endure life’s inequities or unjust persecution, such as Job, Patriarch Joseph, Jeremiah, and the beggar Lazarus. Crushed in various ways through no fault of their own, these saints became beautiful not despite the cracks, but because of how they dealt with them. Without such trials, these saints would never have become as great as they are.

“Second are those who sinned greatly but repented deeply, such as King David, Peter, and Paul. Their great sins are there for all to see and the sins remain sinful. Yet, Christ healed their fractured souls with the gold of their repentance and faithfulness.

“Then there is Christ Himself. He didn’t just valiantly and humbly endure unjust persecution: He came to earth for that very purpose – for OUR sake. So, His wounded side and hands remain in eternity as visible signs of the beauty of His victorious self-sacrificial love.

“So, let’s take heart. Are we innocently enduring persecution? Christ can make us beautiful through our trials. Have we fallen into serious sin? We can repent and still become great saints. We can even go past these things to suffer freely for love of Christ and His people. Thus, we shall most deeply resemble Him Whose greatest glory is that He was freely broken for our sake.”

—Abbess Melania, Holy Assumption Monastery

Health and healing, water and blessing.

church, feasts, icons, , , , , , , , , , ,

Last weekend I drove a visiting priest to San Francisco, from where he was going to return to his home across the world the following day. But before I dropped him off at the church where he would serve that evening, he asked if we might stop by Holy Virgin Cathedral, where the relics of St. John the Wonderworker reside. I was quite happy to do that!

Every time I visit there, I feel more comfortable and more deeply blessed, but so far, not less overwhelmed by the size of the space, especially the height of the cathedral, and the numerous icons covering the walls and also freestanding around. The names are all in Cyrillic, so there are many who remain unidentified to me, though this time I recognized more of the saints just from having got to know them better elsewhere.

When I tried to get a picture of my companion as he stood praying next to St. John’s casket (he is somewhat hidden behind a palm), I realized that I could include the whole of one of the stained glass crosses in my picture. Later he and I discussed the used of stained glass in Orthodox churches, and I made note of how in the image we were looking at, there were no human figures, so no saints were cut in pieces, as it were, by leaded lines. He liked these examples of stained glass. I guess I still am not used to them.

It was timely that I came away with that picture, because today was our commemoration of the Procession of the Honorable Wood of the Life-Giving Cross of the Lord.

“The origin of this Feast is explained in the Greek Horologion of 1897: ‘Because of the illnesses which occur during the month of August, it was customary at Constantinople to carry the Precious Wood of the Cross in procession throughout the city for its sanctification, and to deliver it from sickness.'”

A service for the Blessing of Water was held this evening, the hymns all about healing; and our rector reminded us that though we may tend to seek medical care when we are ill, we ought always to pray first, especially for the healing of our sin-sick souls.

Today is also the beginning of the Dormition Fast, by which we prepare our hearts to imitate the life of the Mother of our Lord, and we make ready to remember her death, on August 15th. The consideration of her example, and the shortness of our own lives, also help put us in a condition of receptiveness to the healing power of the Holy Spirit.

The Lord is my Light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

A prayer from tonight’s service:

O Lord our God, Who art great in counsel and wondrous in deeds; Fashioner of all creation, Who preservest Thy covenant and Thy mercy for those who love Thee and keep Thy commandments; Who receivest the compunctionate tears of all who are in need. For this reason Thou camest in the form of a servant, being not afraid of our image, but granting true health to the body and saying, “Behold, you who have become healed; sin no more!” And with clay Thou madest the eyes whole, having commanded them to be washed, at a word making them to rejoice in the light, putting to confusion the floods of passions caused by the enemies and drying up the bitter sea of this life, subduing the floods of sweet things heavy to bear: As the same King, O Lover of mankind, Who hast granted us to clothe ourselves with the garment of snowy brightness, by water and the Spirit, send down upon us Thy blessing by the partaking of and sprinkling with these waters, washing away the filth of passions.

Totally involved in the pain.

beauty, love, , , , , , , , , ,
The Raising of Lazarus

 

“Despite the effects of the Fall and despite our deep sinfulness, the world continues to be God’s creation. It has not ceased to be ‘altogether beautiful.’ Despite human alienation and suffering, the Divine Beauty is still present in our midst and still remains ever active, incessantly performing its work of healing and transfiguration. Even now beauty is saving the world, and it will always continue to do so. But it is the beauty of a God who is totally involved in the pain of the world that He has made, of a God who died on the Cross and on the third day rose victorious from the dead.”

–Metropolitan Kallistos Ware